‘It Has Exposed Who The Real Criminals In Nigeria Are’

By Godwin Ijediogor | 13 February 2016 | 2:54 am

Ezike

THE Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ibuchukwu Ezike, said the situation is an “embarrassing development, shocking, a shameful monumental dent on this “religious and sacred” government.

He stated: “The shock many Nigerians received on learning about this tragedy is not that such scandalous development has happened, but who did it?

“It is not news that a man or woman is caught in the act of adultery, but it is when it involves a man or woman in the temple of God, an ordained man/woman of God, because of his or her status in the arena of sacredness, purity and sanctity.

“You will realise that when the All Progressives Congress (APC) was in opposition, they pretended to be the clean and sanctimonious party, with infallibles as its members and leaders.”

He continued: “They told us their predecessor was dirty, messy, stinking, corrupt, and absolutely incorrigible and un-amenable and that when given the opportunity to lead our country, they would turn Nigeria from her beggarly and rotten status to a status characterised by openness, integrity, credibility and abundance for the betterment of our people.

They promised that they were bringing change to the table- change to make Nigeria more transparent, accountable, credible, wealthy, honourable and a respecter of the rule of law, due process and human rights.

Unfortunately, since May 29, last year, Nigeria has not been the same again. There is hunger everywhere, our laws and court orders have been flagrantly disobeyed, due process has been violated and human rights of the citizens brazenly abused.”

To him, from the current allegation, which is a novel and scientific approach to corruption, is clear that the budget is a “package of mischievous, deceptive and dubious figures.”

Ezike added: “CLO does not only condemn this reprehensible act, but also demands that appropriate constitutional provisions against such gigantic fraud be invoked without delay, so that people should caution themselves and rest the rules.

“We make bold to say that where this is not done and in good time, then, we will be prepared to face the worst suffocating hardship in the history of this country, except the National Assembly (NASS) does extra job to re-write the gross wrongs. This system of stealing is too scientific and I praise the intelligence and wisdom of NASS in taking the pains to discover the frauds.

“The President must claim responsibility for this fraud again, and not shift it to anybody else. We are not surprised at what happened, because aside the issues raised above, which suggest that the government has no intolerance for corruption, where would the President, who has become the Minister of Foreign Affairs settle down to clinically study the budget or even cross check with the ministers, permanent secretaries and heads of agencies and commissions to check and correct any mistakes that could be discovered there in.

“Although some associates of the Presidency and APC members have been trying to redeem their government and party from the corruption, describing it as a proposal that the NASS has right to adopt or reject.”

He maintained that copying the old system by this regime meant that there was no change, as being claimed by the party, especially when nothing is done differently from the old order.

“Suppose the NASS didn’t discover these frauds, wouldn’t the huge sums secretly run into private pockets?
“The amount of money allegedly proposed for certain projects have been objectively queried by the NASS. “The grand total of the budget is another big issue. NASS accuses the Presidency of given N 6.1 trillion as the grand totals, while the actual or correct figure is put at N6.3 trillion.

“Lastly, we are waiting for the ardent supporters of this government, who are in the habit of going to the press to ask the alleged perpetrators of such crimes who are in position of authority to resign, to advise Buhari to resign now.
“I do not think anybody has committed this kind of fraud since the creation of this country.“The budget fraud is a monumental disgrace and damaging scandal. It has vindicated Nigerians, who the President described as criminals overseas, as saints. The World now knows who the criminals are.”

Larry O Basford

There’s always going to be thieves, , fraudulent fraudsters , looters as usual, as long as there are old wine in the new bottle, those former PDP crossed carpeters in this APC lead government what do we expect from them. Politicians like Saraki, Amaechi, Oyegun, Al Rufal, Tunubu and host of others. Nigeria as a nation since independent has never had , patriotic, honesty, trustworthy, men and women of integrity and passionate leaders and leadership in the affairs of this country. Too much dishonesty and gullible leaders. This country needs revolution to hanged all our so called elites in crime and looters, to apeasd the nation. God is angry with us for the economy evils going on in this country by our we don’t care leaders .
NonPartisanElder

Easy! Easy!! Easy!!! Anybody who believes that President Buhari could be part of a budget scam can believe anything. One cannot vouchsafe all the men in the presidency nor the bureaucrats in the ministries; but as for PMB, we can rest assured. Let the lawmakers perform their job honestly and meticulously. Embarrassing as it might be, let PMB represent a rationalised and thoroughly scrutinised budget for approval. Then, let the corruption-ridden heads roll. This kind of revelation would not have come up in the last dispensation; there would have been settlements behind the scene. We are moving forward with the change mantra under the leadership of PMB. No wahala.
- Genchez19C
  
  So sad that rational people are defending the President here and exonerate him from being part and parcel of this fraud. So sad indeed. Why if I may ask presented this budget to the NASS? Last I checked, it was PMB. Are you saying he is not aware of what is contained in the document he presented? The possibility of this is even more frightening. It amounts a negligence and dereliction of duty on part of the C-in-C, an offense in both the civil service and the military.
  Dear Mr. NonPartisanElder, the buck stops on the Presidents table. If heads are to roll, it should start with him. Let’s wake up from this joke that Buhari is not corrupt!
  - NonPartisanElder
    
    I have no regrets so far for trusting PMB as a person. If there is one single political leader that can be trusted in today’s Nigeria, it is most likely to be PMB. Yes, the buck stops on the President’s table as you rightly observed; but the incident of the alleged budget scam has not established his culpability; neither for corruption nor negligence. Is it not possible for the wicked criminals to carry out the alleged alterations in the interval of “final binding” of the already vetted budget document?
    
    We understand that Mr. President has instituted an investigation. Let’s wait for the outcome and the action that follows. In Buhari I trust so far, and I pray always; otherwise Nigeria is doomed if we cannot have anyone to lead us to victory in the war against corruption.
    - OFFISSA-IN-CHARGE
      
      Mr. NonPartisaElder, being gullible is akin to suffering from cancer – it is as devastating as the outcome of a cancer illness . Trust nobody, not even your flesh and blood, BUT the God Almighty. Let’s numb our minds and our vigilance and join your trusting vehicle for a moment. Doesn’t this scandal prove that the PMB is grossly INCOMPETENT and/or NEGLIGENT? Which country defends and praises an incompetent leader? Only the Nigeria’s NonPartisaElders. You agreed that the buck stops on his table, yet you continue to defend PMB – is this type of display of ignorance not the reason why the political class have raped the ordinary people to comatose in Nigeria? Please, be educated to know henceforth that, PMB is directly responsible for the actions and/or inactions of men and women under him. This is the true and universal meaning of the concept of bucks stopping on one’s table.
      - NonPartisanElder
        
        One is constrained to teach basic English and logic on this forum but one must refrain from descending to hurling insults. Contrary to your insinuations, I am neither gullible nor ignorant. The phrase “the buck stops here” was popularised by US President Harry Truman who actually placed an inscription of that idiomatic expression on his desk, to emphasise that the captain or leader takes responsibility for any situation, decision or action concerning his team or organisation. If a failure occurs in a system, it doesn’t ipso facto means that the leader is incompetent; but that the leader must accept responsibility to do the needful and put things right. If it is established that the leader himself is incapable of remedying the situation, then he should be fired. How many times have we seen the best football teams losing matches because of errors committed by some player(s) other than the team captain?
        
        Again, I reiterate my agreement that the buck stops at the table of Mr. President. We understand that he has directed an investigation of the budget scam. Let’s await the outcome of the investigation and watch how he will act on the matter. Under the leadership of President Buhari, Nigeria has a high hope of dealing a fatalistic blow on its greatest enemy i.e. corruption. I am assuming that you do not wish that President Jonathan had won his re-election bid.
      - jon
        
        Why are wasting your time sir on these people that never want to see Nigeria better I still ask what fraud nass can’t say lai Mohammed rejected applications from one of his department on procurement of computers same time nass are angry because of there allocation and that minister will now sign every penny they want instead of comply they announced fraud
      - abodes_124
        
        At this rate I wish he had. there is no single index of a country’s well being that you can point to that has improved in the past 8 months even our position in the internanational corruption index!
      - sammyo
        
        Dont worry Nigeria still rank 136 out of 186 of International corruption index, this crops in government are worst than the former, uneducated, illiterates, last of the class and bunch of Association of Past and Present Criminals (APC)
    - abodes_124
      
      Who would you say should be held responsible for all thee ‘corruption’ that went on during Jonathan’s regime ?
    - Nazerine
      
      What would APC have said if Jonathan was in Buhari’s position today and such monumental fraud was discovered?
    - damian
      
      Forget about instituting any investigation. The fact is that the man was either negligent not to carefully scrutinize an ALL IMPORTANT document as the budget before sending to NASS or was part of the scam. Responsibility entails that one should accept his/her faults or offences otherwise the person is bound to continue doing same.
      - sammyo
        
        What do you expect from an illiterate? or bunch of people with Oluwole certificates. A political party that come to power without any plan or visions, they are group of blind people leading millions of Nigerians, but I pray that God will save the country
  - share Idea
    
    If it is to take credit for GEJ’s policy like TSA, Buhari will credit himself with the achievement and his supporters will praise him for such, when alarm was raised about the TSA commission, Buhari will let Nigerians know that the policy was signed by GEJ and he was not aware of the commission. Now, the issue of fraudulent budget is in public domain, Buhari and PAC supporters are blaming the civil servants and corrupt people, forgetting that he once told the world that Ministers are noise markers as civil servants are the one doing the great work – thus, the delay in forming a cabinet.
    
    This penchant to blame others than himself started with his swearing in when asked to give us policy direction, he blamed it on GEJ’s handover notes and when that was given to him, he blamed his government in action on imaginary looted $150B and the lies continues… Nigeria we hail thee
- umolu
  
  But PMB said it is better for him to pick people he trusts to be honest or people he could rely on. Now we can see the worth of his allies.
- Nazerine
  
  “This kind of revelation would not have come up in the last dispensation; there would have been settlements behind the scene”.
  But the fraud was discovered by the NASS, not Buhari. In fact it was Buhari himself who took it to the NASS and called it “Budget of Change” with all the paddings for Aso Rock which he intended to steal.
- damian
  
  My friend stop being sentimental about this . Either way, the president is aware of the fraud in the budget or not aware of the details of the budget and both portends danger and makes him guilty please. You APC people should just wake up to the realities of governing Nigeria and face it squarely and responsibly. It is not about press brouhaha and propaganda. .Please we cannot be rest assured with a budget scam, we cannot also absolve the president of such scam.
Maigari

Yes Mr.Ezike it is either you are absolutely mischievous or simply doesn’t understand the methods and ways of budgeting in Nigeria. Is it not too much to blame Muhammadu Buhari for the machinations od some civil servants who have long cultivated nd sharpened the habit of Budget Padding? This is a process that has gone on for decades it is only because Buhari has nothing to hide that the whole scheme was exposed. Talking of culpability how was it that you were blind to the failings of the former prime minster Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the many budgetary frauds including the unfolding #Dasukigate from the Abacha recovered loot? Yes by all means criticism president Buhari for any shortcomings you perceive but be objective in that.
The issue remains that we operate a system that promotes this fraudulent behavior and Buhari is just trying his personal best to stem the tide and restore some sanity to the system. Those who have benefited from the distorted system sure are certain to fight back and we hope you aren’t one of them or are you?
- share Idea
  
  Tribalism is your biggest problem if not, there is no way you can compare what is presently happening before our very eyes to what we used to obtain in the past. During GEJ’s time, we had coordinating minister of finance who takes responsibility and addressed the nation about budget details and she was not afraid to admit to the nation about government short-comings.
  
  Have you ever heard that last administration tried smuggling a different budget version to NASS after submission, no, as normal process was always followed in submitting addendum. Does it mean that the previous administration does not have any fault like every human endeavour – no, but the previous administration believe that they are human capable of making mistakes and apologises when one is committed contrast with this administration that heap every mistakes to others and praises to himself.
  
  Has anybody in this administration address us on fundamental principle of this budget, that was a given under last administration. Please advise Buhari to stop thinking that he is infallible
  - Maigari
    
    I do not speak for this administration anyway. More importantly where is the tribalism anyway unless of course you have all along been wanting to divert the discussion to that avenue. If you have the opinion that PMB has failed say it loud and clear but tribe must not be part of the discussion.
- abodes_124
  
  If what we see is an example of Buhari ‘just trying his personal best to stem the tide and restore some sanity to the system’ heaven help us when he relaxes a bit.
stan Emelogu

Either way Buhari should take the blame. The APC and the presidency blamed Jonathan for the excesses of his administration. The APC has been unrelenting in assigning blame to the ex president for everything that went wrong. In the same vein, Buhari and the APC must take responsibility for this obvious attempt at defrauding the nation. We won’t accept the lame excuses the APC and Buhari apologists are fronting to cover the scandal. If Buhari is not involved, then he should resign for incompetence. On the other hand if he is implicated as most of us suspect he is, then he should be impeached. We all should thank and support our NASS for exposing this fraud.
7stephen7

The problem lies in the time it took to appoint the Ministers. The Ministers can not be held responsible for this error, and also this is the first time APC is actually managing the 26th largest economy in the world. There is bound to be some teething mistakes.

Ezike`s unnecessary outburst, asking the President to resign shows to a greater effect that he has hidden pains, and he is using this as an opportunity to voice out.

Ezike is predicting fraud, when we have the biggest fraud and rape of a Nation ever under investigation.The Malabu fraud presently in UK and Italian courts, the Dasuki fraud and the Defense scandal are examples of a brutal and cruel rape of Nigerians.

How on earth would anyone with a sincere love for this nation predict fraud and compare this cleaning process to that administration.

This is a sincere Government, there are not above mistakes, but they will learn along the way and things will be better.
- Genchez19C
  
  Dear Mr. 7stephen….let’s be honest and call a spade a spade. There is only one person who should take responsibility for this monumental attempt at fraud against Nigeria. and that person is PMB. Not a civil servant somewhere, not a minister. PMB presented this document. He presented it. Please don’t tell me he is not aware of what was contained in the budget he presented to the NASS. That makes him immediately unfit for the position he presently occupies. If there was praises coming out of this budget now, you will be singing Buhari’s praises!
  It goes without saying that every Nigeria that has lived in Nigeria these past 40 year have both open and hidden pains including you!! By the way the only difference between PDP and APC is in their names. The share the same values and aims as we are seeing from the budget saga.
  And pls don’t buy into the lie that there is a house cleaning process going on. I am yet to see it. All we see is the government coming up with sensational stories and yet another set of stories once people want to settle down to ask what is this govt doing? For example, we heard 3 weeks ago that the government now have evidence and names of 55 Nigerians who stole our N1.8 trillion. How many people have you seen them arrest or charge to court since then? I rest my case. We are just 3 months away from this govt hitting 1 year and what can you honestly point to as an achievement, based on your expectation when you voted them? Be honest? Did you vote for excuses or did you vote for demonstrable actions and results?
- abodes_124
  
  you could have fooled me
Altold

The President is the Commander-in-Chief and on his table, the buck stops. Buhari is the President and he should take responsibility; no two way about it.
BenAri22

Ibuchukwu Ezike is “Corruption Fighting Back” personified. The APC has fought as hard as anyone to catch the corrupt additions to the budget added by criminal civil servants and politicians. Did this ever happen during the mass looting that characterized the Jonathan era? A resounding “NO”.

Ibuchukwu, can we examine your banking transactions in the last few weeks? We know what we would find. Clown!
- Nazerine
  
  APC fought hard to catch the corrupt additions by Buhari taking the fraud to Senate and calling it “Budget of Change”
Johnny Oraefo

Elder Johnny Oraefo-USA speaks out!
No matter which direction one looks at it, this whole scenario should be centered on the presidency. How in the world can all these atrocities be going on, and someone, who’s supposed to be at the helm of the ruling government, doesn’t know anything about it? Give me a break! At the beginning, I was very supportive of Mr.Buhari’s presidency, but now, things are falling apart for sure. Could this be a sign that the good Lord is about to make some truthful changes in Nigeria. Let me warn any individuals, who might think that military take over in Nigeria is the solution, have a second thought. The military is even worse than the idle civilians. As a former army officer during the civil war in Nigeria, we were trained to shun all forms of bribery & corruption, to be forthright in all our dealings, to respect human dignity, to ensure protection of lives and property as our top priority, and most importantly, to pay allegiance to the country we called our own, among other things. What we are seeing in Nigeria today, seems to me a sign of things to come. I had severally made it known publicly that if President Buhari fails to bring the much needed change in Nigeria, Almighty God would definitely step in. This was a message that I received in 2002 while I was visiting Nigeria. Therefore, people of Nigeria, it’s time for everyone to start praying fervently. There is hope for sure! God will re-organize every situation in Nigeria sooner than later. Pray Without Ceasing (1st Thessalonians 5 verse 17)
Elder Johnny Ndubuisi Chinedum Oraefo-USA
jon

All this rant not one thing you can say is done wrong have you seen the budget it self nass not happy cause there allocation is less than every thing let them come out and tell us what fraud in the budget due to crude oil price Nigeria is broke so cutting thiefs money is a good way please Mr clo tell us what fraud commited hunger in the country I now buy bag of rice 5000naira ten tubers of yam 900naira mudu of beans 200 fill my car 5000naira in last 3 months I have not touched my gen the problem is that thiefs are now parading in Abuja. Cause the way they steal is stopped but I know they will soon be stopped
jon

There are mistakes on text and calcution Mr clo ezike not fraud
tunde008

No settlement for NASS.that is why these are being exposed. Under Buhari every kobo spent must be accounted for.
- abodes_124
  
  hmmm including the 3.74 billion Naira he has requested for the State house medical clininic ?
Felix Asikpata

Mr NonPartisanElder sounds very much like a character from George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ – Moses the tame raven, who never saw anything bad in the running of the Farm as it plummeted from bad to worse under Napoleon. In the end “the animals looked from pig to man, and from man to pig and could not distinguish one from the other”. God Save Nigeria!
- abodes_124
  
  I wonder if any of our newspapers would be bold enough to serialise Animal farm at this time . It would be so instructive and the similarities painfully hilarious. But they will not dare and the government would arrest them for treason. It was banned in the old Soviet Union
oloriakojo

The interesting thing here is that …we are all part of a big screen drama playing out in the Nigerian national television Screen…………

Looters and dies hard thieves in the civil service, who have perfected a way of systematic stealing with budget tampering for over 16years of PDP reign are trying to mess up PMB and His new administrations in town…………

the National Assembly who have been in active connivance with the thieving civil service are unhappy about the new hard line profile of PMB on budget ceilings…because they know that ………this budget will give them no room for padding …which they (national assembly dudes) later go back to the civil service officials to collect with their crony companies…….via direct awards of contracts……

The..only issue is that …the civil service + national assembly dudes do not know that they are both playing into PMB’s trap.
when the game starts to play out………….it will not be funny ……..as ,many heads will roll…………when the brutal PMB corruption clean-up machine starts…………….1984 will be a child’s play compared to the video we will all be watching.
Ubong Joseph Udo

Make at least 150K every other month legitimately with little or no effort
https://www.fourcornersalliancegroup.com/?a=ubongudo. It’s REAL, It’s LEGAL and it’s SIMPLE!!! Call 09025370385 for more info. Get on your way to financial independence in 2016 now!!!

Currency	Interbank Rate	Parallel Rate
USD	306	370
GBP	393	477
EUR	359	432

‘It Has Exposed Who The Real Criminals In Nigeria Are’

You may also like